Something
by ToxiNeena
Summary: How long would it take for her friends to notice, she wondered, that she and Natsu were…something? Giftfic!


_**Happy birthday to my friend, looneytails! This is a special little giftfic for you! Hope you like it! Hope everyone else likes it too. And, while you're reading this, you should totally drop looneytails a note on Tumblr wishing her a happy birthday! Anyway, so, here's some sweet NaLu goodness from the perspective of mainly Gray. (Some input from Erza, Mira, and Lisanna, too). Happy reading!**_

_**Make sure to leave a review, too!**_

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**Prompt:** _NaLu from the eyes of some of the other guild members._

**_Giftfic for looneytails_**

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...

"They're different than usual lately…"

Gray, sitting at the bar counter, tossed back the rest of his drink—some sort of vodka or tequila; he wasn't too sure since Mira tended to just fill his mug with whatever she thought he needed. After dealing with Juvia all night long, he needed a drink, and a strong one at that. Something to get his mind off of the feelings that he wasn't supposed to be having.

In response to Erza's rather open question, the ice-make mage blearily turned on his high stool and peered at his comrade with narrowed, dark eyes. "Who's different?" he muttered.

Erza twiddled her fork with her thumb and forefinger, back and forth on her plate, before carefully cutting another bite-sized chunk out of her strawberry cake. Her first portion of the day, and definitely not her last. "Natsu and Lucy," she replied, and scooped the bite of frosting and cake-mixture into her mouth. The little moan she gave had Gray thinking that the cake was absolutely heavenly—but, then again, practically all cakes were heavenly to the incurable, redheaded sweet-tooth. "There's…_something_ about them…"

Gray turned on his stool again, idly rubbing the side of his neck as he searched for his fellow teammates.

And when he caught sight of familiar pink and blonde hair, he frowned. They were sitting at a table, like usual, and Natsu was stuffing his face, like usual, while Lucy was reading and berating him for making a huge mess, like usual. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to the stripper, who watched with glazed eyes from afar. In fact, they seemed more normal than ever if anything.

"Natsu, hey, stop leaving crumbs all over the place! I'm trying to read here…" Lucy whined to her partner with a furrowed brow and a haughty glare.

Natsu stopped eating, though briefly, to laugh and dismissively say, "Sorry, Luce," before going right back to what he'd been doing since he'd set foot in the guild hall—eating. It was a wonder the fire dragonslayer wasn't obese by now, with all the copious amounts of food he consumed on a daily basis. Had to be the fact that he was a dragonslayer, and somehow burned more energy than a normal person.

"Geez…" huffed the celestial spirit mage when he completely ignored her earlier protest. She snatched her book up, wrinkling her button-like nose, and put it in her lap to continue reading.

With a sigh, Gray scooted back around on his stool and shrugged. "They don't seem very different to me." He dropped his mug onto the gleamingly-polished bar counter, relishing the thought of another refill with a lazy smirk.

"Look harder," Erza huffed, treating herself to another morsel of cake.

Gray heaved another breath, his shoulders lifting and sagging. "What the hell's so important about peeping on our teammates, huh?" But he studied Natsu and Lucy again anyway, this time keeping his midnight eyes alert for anything that could be considered out of the ordinary.

He didn't know what he was even supposed to be looking for. Natsu and Lucy were just sitting at a table, with Lucy occasionally grumbling something to Natsu about him being such a sloppy eater. Really, nothing abnormal at all. The only thing that Gray could even remotely begin to suspect that was out of place, was the fact that Natsu would glance at Lucy every now and then—and when she would catch him, he would just grin at her, stuffed cheeks and all. But even that wasn't all that strange. Nor was the way that Lucy's chocolate-colored eyes would melt as she scoffed at her dragonslayer partner and chuckled under her breath.

That was just typical, every day, Natsu-Lucy behavior.

"I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to be looking for," grumbled the ice-make mage after regarding his friends for another good few minutes.

"You don't see it?" Mira interjected from behind the bar counter in that cheery, preppy, voice of hers that sometimes Gray found he couldn't stand.

"No, I don't see whatever the hell it is you two are seeing," he bit back.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Gray watched as Mira finished drying down a freshly-washed mug and set it on the back shelf with a bubbly smile. How she managed to be so genuinely happy, he would never understand. Nor how she seemed to be able to read minds, as she snagged a liquor bottle from the cabinet and filled Gray's mug to the brink. "They obviously like each other," she said, capping the flask of whatever alcohol she'd grabbed.

Downing his drink again in three deep swallows, Gray breathed out in a hiss as the alcohol burned the inside of his throat and mouth. "How do'ya know that?" he mumbled out as he fixed his eyes on Mira.

She giggled in that special way of hers, powder-blue eyes crinkling at the corners as her shapely mouth spread into an easy smile. Pointing a pale finger at Natsu and Lucy, she asked, "Don't you see how close they're sitting?"

Gray paused to consider this, and let his eyes rake over his friends again.

Well, he did suppose that they were sitting a bit close. Close enough that Natsu's thick thigh was pushed against Lucy's slimmer, more curvy, one. And close enough that their shoulders brushed, and their elbows knocked together, when either one of them turned or moved. So…yeah, he did consider that a little bit close. Maybe more than a little bit close.

Okay, dammit, he would say that they were really close.

But just because they happened to be sitting so close together that their bodies were smooshed didn't mean that they liked each other. "So?" Gray sniffed.

"So," Mira continued, and braced her elbows on the countertop as she propped her chin up with both hands, "I think they're together." At the habitual stripper's slowly raised brow, she added, "You know, like, _together_-_together_. A couple. Or something like that."

That made Gray snort. And then scoff. And then chuckle. His voice was raspy from too many hard drinks when he said, "Natsu and Lucy? That Flame-brain? He wouldn't know romance if it slapped him on the ass. There's no way he and Lucy are together; I'm betting he'll stay single till he's thirty-something…"

A small, musical, laugh invaded Gray's ears in the next moment. He didn't need to turn his head to know that it was Lisanna who was meandering over next to him from where she'd been standing and listening in on the conversation. "Hm, you know, I originally thought so too," came the youngest Strauss's smooth voice as she slid onto the barstool next to Gray with fluid grace. "But, you see, I've known Natsu for a long time—since we were kids. I know him pretty well." She shrugged at this. "And I can tell you that he's very interested in Lucy-san."

Gray, however, remained stubbornly unconvinced. "…Right," he drawled, leaning back in his seat and resting his elbows on the counter.

"He is," Lisanna insisted. "I mean, look at him." The pale, take-over mage nudged her comrade and pointed a dainty finger at Natsu and Lucy. "I've never seen him like that before with anyone—not even me. The look on his face is different when he's looking at Lucy-san." But, there was no longing, or sadness, in her voice; just honest to goodness truth. It was no secret that Lisanna held feelings for the guild's rambunctious fire dragonslayer, but it was also clear that she'd come to accept the fact that her first love had already found his perfect match.

Gray huffed again, eyes narrowing on his teammates as they continued their daily buffoonery.

Natsu was grinning, a cheek-splitting smile, and snickering at whatever Lucy had said to him. She, too, was laughing—and it was a real laugh; the kind where she closed her eyes and laughed until her face was pink and rosy. That was normal for the both of them, too, Gray knew. What was _not_ normal, though, was the way that Natsu's eyes suddenly grew soft and warm when Lucy was too busy laughing and clenching her own eyes shut to properly look at him.

_That_ stopped the ice-make mage dead in his tracks.

_That look…_

He'd seen that look. He _knew_ that look. In fact, he was way too familiar with that look. It was a look that Juvia flashed him when she thought he wasn't looking; it was a look of utter adoration. A completely spellbound, shitfaced, glassy-eyed, goo-goo look that he never thought he'd see cross Natsu's—of all people—face.

"Holy shit…" The words tumbled from Gray's hinged mouth before he could find anything more intelligent to say. "They're…"

So totally…_something_.

"Like I said," Erza began again, "there's something different about the two of them lately. Something changed between them… But what?" The redhead tapped her fork on her plate contemplatively, brown eyes rolling up to the ceiling while she pondered.

Well, Gray thought, it was a little hard to catch, but there was something going on between Natsu and Lucy; for sure. Maybe, like Mira suggested, they were together, like a couple.

And, as if she was doing that mind reading-thing again, Mira giggled, "I wonder when they'll tell us."

…

"…Hey, Natsu…?" Lucy murmured as she ducked her head, turning her eyes from the stares she was receiving over at the bar.

She'd noticed them a while ago—especially Gray, since he hadn't even attempted to cover up his gawking—but she hadn't said anything. Normally, she would just tell them to stop ogling her like they were studying some sort of fascinating new species. But, this time, she had a general idea of why they were so riveted with not just her, but Natsu as well.

Natsu, nibbling on a bone, cocked a curious brow at her. "What?"

"…I think they've started to notice," she said softly, her cheeks growing hotter.

The fire dragonslayer plucked the bone from his mouth, running his tongue over his sharpened teeth, before flashing Lucy a carefree grin that usually melted her from the inside out. It did not disappoint. "Well, it's about damn time, huh?" he laughed, and from underneath the table, his leg knocked against hers playfully.

"Don't you think we should tell them?" The celestial spirit mage pushed her leg against his in retaliation, a slow, sweet smile spreading across her freshly-glossed lips.

"Hmm…" Natsu hummed, blinking, and looking up as though he was honestly thinking hard about the inquiry. After a few seconds, though, his head suddenly snapped back down—another devilish grin on his face—and he said, "Nah," and swiftly reached under the table to pinch the soft flesh of her thigh.

Lucy yelped. "Natsu!" Her hands knocked his away from her bare thigh. She'd picked a bad day to wear shorts; Natsu liked to pinch her thighs, or her butt, whenever he got the chance. "Don't do that; they'll see," she hissed, her voice dissolving into giggles.

"See…that's the fun part," he told her lowly, his voice deepening and rumbling in his chest. Underneath the table, where she was consistently pushing his hands away from her delectable thigh that was oh, so pinch-able and soft—and bitable, too, some part of his mind just had to inform him—he clasped her hands with just one of his and held on tightly. It never ceased to amaze him just how small her hands were, and how warm, too. "Let them figure it out for themselves, Luce…"

"Fine," she breathed.

How long would it take for her friends to notice, she wondered, that she and Natsu were…_something?_

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**_I apologize that it's so short! I would totally write more if I had more time, but I wanted to get this out on the exact date. So, anyway, my apologies for the shortness! But I hope you enjoyed it!  
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**_Leave comments! I might think about making this a two-shot or something..._**


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